Iraq's Assyrians battle ISIS for survival

By Nils Metzger, for CNN

Updated 1:39 PM ET, Mon April 20, 2015

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.

Photos:Iraq's Assyrians battle ISIS for survival

Members of the Assyrian Christian militia Dwekh Nawsha man a machine gun in Dohuk, Iraq in March 2015. Assyrians belong to the rapidly dwindling Christian population of Iraq, which has been targeted by ISIS.

Hide Caption

1 of 12

Photos:Iraq's Assyrians battle ISIS for survival

A militia member drives to Baqufa, Iraq, where Dwekh Nawsha and the Kurdish Peshmerga have been fighting the militant group. Freelance photographer Andy Sprya spent time with the militia photographing them in March 2015.

Hide Caption

2 of 12

Photos:Iraq's Assyrians battle ISIS for survival

A landscape view of the Nineveh Plains near Alqosh, Iraq, not far from Baqufa.

Hide Caption

3 of 12

Photos:Iraq's Assyrians battle ISIS for survival

Albert Giso, right, is one of the local commanders of the Dwekh Nawsha militia. Here, he gives instructions to fighters on the front line in Baqufa.

Hide Caption

4 of 12

Photos:Iraq's Assyrians battle ISIS for survival

As most ISIS attacks take place in the early morning hours and the fighters rarely sleep at night.

Hide Caption

5 of 12

Photos:Iraq's Assyrians battle ISIS for survival

A militia fighter aims his weapon in Baqufa. So far, the militia has only assembled and trained 40 fighters, but they say they have many supporters who send money or offer support on the frontlines.

Hide Caption

6 of 12

Photos:Iraq's Assyrians battle ISIS for survival

A militia member on the rooftop of a local house in Baqufa that serves as a base. Fighters are a mixed bunch -- including an electrician, a baker and his father.

Hide Caption

7 of 12

Photos:Iraq's Assyrians battle ISIS for survival

Dwekh Nawsha fighters inside a church in Baqufa. When the village was overrun by ISIS in August, they desecrated the church but left it intact as a structure.

Hide Caption

8 of 12

Photos:Iraq's Assyrians battle ISIS for survival

The churches in the Nineveh plains are some of the oldest in Christianity. Assyrians are a Middle Eastern minority with a history going back more than 4,000 years.

Hide Caption

9 of 12

Photos:Iraq's Assyrians battle ISIS for survival

A Dwekh Nawsha fighter on the rooftop of a church in Baqufa. There are about 300,000 Christians in Iraq today, compared with 1.5 million 20 years ago, according to Christian relief organization CAPNI.

Hide Caption

10 of 12

Photos:Iraq's Assyrians battle ISIS for survival

Dwekh Nawsha fighters walk through a Christian cemetery in Baqufa.

Hide Caption

11 of 12

Photos:Iraq's Assyrians battle ISIS for survival

A fighter outside the base in Baqufa -- none of the militia members thinks victory over ISIS will be quick.

Hide Caption

12 of 12

Story highlights

Assyrians are an ancient Middle Eastern minority -- they are part of the rapidly dwindling Christian population of Iraq

After ISIS overran their villages, some Assyrians formed a militia to fight for survival against the terror group

Nils Metzger is a freelance journalist who traveled in Iraq during March 2015 with photographer Andy Spyra, whose images are featured in this story.

(CNN)When ISIS overran their villages near Mosul in August 2014, a small group of Assyrians, a Middle Eastern minority with a history reaching back more than 4,000 years, picked up weapons and formed their own militia: Dwekh Nawsha -- "The Sacrificers."

Assyrians belong to the rapidly dwindling Christian population of Iraq -- recent estimates from CAPNI, the largest Christian relief organization in northern Iraq put the number as low as 300,000 compared with 1.5 million 20 years ago -- and many among them see the fight with ISIS as a final battle for survival against the Islamists.

JUST WATCHED

Expert on ISIS' Latest Propaganda

MUST WATCH

Expert on ISIS' Latest Propaganda06:13

"'Ah, Assyrians -- I've read about them in the Bible,' is what many people say," says Marcus Naissan, a 25-year-old electrical technician and member of Dwekh Nawsha. "But we are not just history, we are still alive, we are still here."

The exodus of Christians from Iraq started prior to ISIS -- and the civil war in the mid-2000s took an especially heavy toll. Today, most Iraqi Christians live in Kurdish areas in the north, which have been a relative haven of stability. And so far, the Kurds have been taking heavy losses to defend Christian and Yezidi minorities against ISIS.

Every night, the fighters hear the rumbling sound of coalition airplanes in the sky over Baqufa where they have their safe house just a few miles from the frontline. Here they relax, patrol the empty streets of the village and try to hinder ISIS suicide commandos from entering the near city of Dohuk where UNHCR says almost 100,000 refugees -- many of them Christians -- have found a temporary place to stay.

Read More

JUST WATCHED

ISIS claims beheadings of Ethiopian Christians

MUST WATCH

ISIS claims beheadings of Ethiopian Christians02:16

So far, the militia has only assembled and trained 40 fighters.

But Rama Baito, manager of the digital media presence of the group, shows me his direct messages on Facebook -- dozens of ex-soldiers, diaspora Assyrians or Christian activists from all over the world contact him and offer monetary support or their own presence on the frontline.

"We have 200 people waiting right now, because we simply do not have enough weapons and training capacities," Baito says.

Since they are still small and have no heavy weaponry, the Dwekh Nawsha fighters say they coordinate closely with local Kurdish Peshmerga commanders and share the same foxholes on the frontline.

The fighters are a very mixed bunch. A young baker, carrying his large military dagger in an elegant sheath, says he brought his father when he enlisted. "But now, we see each other only rarely because he is in another unit of our group," he says.

"When I go on vacation, he goes to the field and the other way around. So every time we swap units, I wait for him, give him a quick hug and then leave back home."

Right now, ISIS is focused on other fronts -- the yellow fields of the Niniveh plains are quite safe for the mostly young fighters.

But none of them thinks victory over ISIS will be quick, nor that fighting will end immediately afterward.

All they can do now is patrol the deserted alleys of Baqufa, making sure the wild dogs don't take over the town and hope one day their relatives will be able to return.